Sir TophamHatt

Is it? Or is that just what we are coming to expect as "normal" these days? But I think we're in a transition period where the older locos' teeth are growing ever longer compared with today's standards and with every new loco that comes out, that tooth grows not by an inch but a foot.

First day of actually going into the office of new job tomorrow. A very early start but had a good day at the SeaLife centre today. Last little bit of model railway spending this week as I must start saving for potential new car in August. Problem is used car prices are fairly high at the moment but current car has it's MOT in September. I'd rather not spend £200/£300 on it if I'm looking to get rid soon. But it is a complete workhorse - 154,000 miles, petrol, still going strong. Always said the engine will outlive the car.

While mine don't seem to rotate, I have had a couple simply fall out - one right at the back in a pretty unreachable spot! I only have 4, but will be looking to replace them with slow mo ones next time.

Been doing this railway thing for 4 years or so, never used one yet. Lets say I want to test how many volts are running through my track - how would I do this? And what about if I wanted to test how many volts are going through a particular cable? It worries me that I've seen people plug in and turn on some sort of power cable, then just touch the bare ends with the multimeter sticks and somehow get a reading.

Will a 100w power supply be enough to run a bunch of lights on platforms, buildings, signals?

Lais decoders have their uses. Running multiple units where you need a separate function decoder gives lais an excellent value-for-money investment. The Lima 156 I used the lais decoder in wasn't great so used them only in a function capacity after that.

Kinda feel a bit let down today. Went to the garden centre mid-morning but hardly any herbs. Drove 20 mins the other way to another one, still none suitable. Did a bit of pottering in the garden but don't feel like I've done very much. Bought the wrong post and spike from Wickes so have to take that back tomorrow. The sun shade sail I bought doesn't quite fit in the way we want it to. Didn't clean the chicken out, did nothing with the model railway (although waiting for a power supply - coming Wednesday). But I did plant out some plants and pulled up the garlic so I guess the day hasn't been completely wasted. I'm not really a relaxer, more of a doer.

Probably not much. What sort of amps should I be looking at?

The end of a other day. Spent half the training day talking about things other than training. Spent 20 mins having a think about this signalling problem on the layout, while waiting for the lawn mower battery to charge - ran out half way through (my fault as I forgot to charge it from last time!). Tomorrow is Sunday. Have to get out for a walk, cook roast pork meal and water the plants. I feel they're going to take a battering when I return to work properly. At least it's not due to rain for a good few days now. Cheers all!

Ahh, I thought you meant use the track output from the controller! Ha ha. So it's okay to split the controller output (using a terminal block) and stick the CDU on one side for points, then use the other side for signals?

This is where it gets more interesting as I watched a video on YouTube with a guy who used a PC power unit. These have lots of 12v outputs. Although the person in the video soldered them all together, I wonder whether each one could be used to power something different but then only the one "other" power supply is needed. Here's the video:

No, using DC system for points with toggle switches. I didn't think about the CDU until now so just wired it up after the controller and then run bus wires for the points. Lights are Eckon LEDs with special control boards for automatic operation. I'm now guessing I'll need to use a separate power supply for these. The post was just asking what people use to power other things apart from the tracks and how they use it (bus wires? terminal blocks? more than one output?).

Number 1 is what I have although off those bus wires, there's now signals. Number 2 is what I'm wondering if I can do. What dial do I turn the Hornby controller up to?

I'll draw a diagram tomorrow as I'm in bed now (should have drawn one earlier!). The point motors are wired to momentary switches so the CDU releases enough power to throw the point. I have to wait maybe 3 or 4 seconds before I can throw another point. The signal is quite far (no more than 4m from the power supply), but beyond that are point motors which throw fine. It's an Eckon LED signal. Uses an infrared detector to change it, which it can handle 12v - 16v, AC or DC.

A question of whether you can power platform lighting, signal lighting and points all from the same secondary power source? Seep point motors need a CDU. Mine is in place between the controller and the accessory bus wires. Signals seem not to want to work when connected to the accessory bus wire. So it's a question of whether I need a 3rd power supply or can I split the 2nd power supply into two, have one for lights and the other (via a CDU) for point motors. Many power supplies come at 19v but what I'm using now is 16v. In order to split a new psu, I guess 16v terminal blocks are out of the question?

Invest in a potato ricer! The oxo good grips one seems good quality. We had a cheaper one but it broke within a year.

Hello! My layout is DCC but I use a simple DC solution to power accessories - namely points and now signals. I read / watched that using the 16v output from a Hornby controller is a way to do this. This is the sort of controller I am using: I'm not using the track output, just the accessory output. The accessory output runs to a CDU and then around my layout as an accessory bus. I run seep points / toggle switches from it, which works fine. Now I've come to add a signal, the signal doesn't work. Using a control board from Heathcote Electronics but that shouldn't matter too much and perhaps is adding complication to the matter. I'm wondering if the CDU is limiting / stopping power to the bus so the point motors don't get burnt out. After all, the CDU provides the quick burst of high power then slowly draws a charge again. Does this mean the signal won't have any power? I've made another post about a different power supply as the Hornby unit doesn't hold the wires that well. But I guess this next question will apply to the Hornby unit or a new power supply. Can I run the accessory line from the controller to a terminal block that allows me to run off a few different lines? Say, one that would go to the CDU, then to point motors or another from the terminal block to power the signals? Don't know if it'll go all weird or not though? Cheers

A read a lot of people have a secondary 16v power supply for things like points and lights. Can someone show me an example of this and how they set it up?

Hooray! Control boards for signals finally here! Taking my time fitting them though and some may prove near on impossible to fit. All healthy and much better today. Pension sorted, gas man rang... a fairly productive day (although I could have done more). And the weather should be drying up too. Always feel better when the weather is drier.

Have these liveries been decided yet? Can you tell us which versions are on the list?

Yet another day gone. I was really poorly last night - got worse throughout my training. Just felt nauseated and had a headache. Took some paracetamol and sleeping tablets, straight to bed. Woke an hour or 2 later, Mrs STH was still up. Today, it's like it never happened. But Mrs STH slept funny so has had agony neck pain all day. I said if she's slept funny, she could have just asked me for some comedy and I would have helped out. She wasn't impressed. But I did also say it'll be like it most of the day and probably a bit of tomorrow morning maybe. We are a pair!

I think so? Mixed it as per the bag instructions (1kg of powder, 750ml water), although elsewhere I read it should be 50/50 by weight. Checked again now (so about 6 hours since the cast) and they're getting harder / dryer. I think they may just need an overnight cure. Although I wonder what would happen if I mixed a bit of normal plaster mix to it, or a touch PVA glue. May get me experimenting!

Is there something I can do to strengthen the plaster of paris product when it comes out the mould? I left mine in for an hour and they came out okay. A few hours later they still seem fairly fragile. Obviously leaving them overnight to fully cure but I wonder if there's some sort of glaze that I can put on them that will strengthen them further? Or perhaps better quality plaster?

Eeeeeeevening. The parents came round today to see Mrs STH and Baby STH. Only saw him at 2 weeks old before the lockdown. They're okay, but noticing how old they're getting now . I've also realised I feel better when I've "done something". Like today, I changed the door handle on the front door (to silver, after Mrs STH painted it grey from generic uPVC white). Changed the letterbox only to find it was too wide. Out with the jigsaw, which annihilated it. After having a think, the dremmel would be a much better tool, and it was! Still didn't cut it small enough but upon adjusting the disc, it broke! However, easy and quick task so bought some more discs from oir favourite auction website so by the end of the week, they should be here. Got the duvets we're using as large cushions for pallet furniture into their weatherproof tubs, so they're now in their home behind the shed. Just hoping stuff that should arrive this week actually does!

Invested in a game through Kickstarter. All is well, but the cards don't quite fit in the inner tray unless you get rid of the boxes from the additional packs (which I don't really want to do). However, someone has designed and made available a 3D file to print a new inner tray. Aldi have a 3D printer for less than £300... I also found (on the same site as the inner tray), a bunch of other things that could be useful from garden hose connections to chess board pieces. I can see this 3D printing lark can get quite fun... and expensive.